June 17–and away we go!

The bed was so comfortable!  We like a firmer mattress and this was perfect.   It could also be that we were so exhausted! :)

All of our info said to not drink the water except for purified bottled so I called the desk to make sure, and she did validate that!! This hotel had toothbrushes and paste as part of their toiletries  so we could use that and through the brushes away once we were done—we have “life straw” bottles (super filters inside) to make sure we have access to water so we filled those up and could sip and spit easily enough.  This does it make it hard to rinse toothbrushes though so it was a nice option to have one to just throw away. 

All of our booked rooms include breakfasts.  This was a buffet for all!  My guess is that since people travel from all over and their bodies are in different clocks, options of all types are helpful.  Rice, noodles, mashed potatoes, dried fish and dried anchovies, Swedish meatballs, pastries, soups, fruit and salads, eggs already scrambled but also they’d make something for you, bacon, little hot dogs, lunch meat (bologna, pickle/pimento loaf, etc.), cereals, yogurts, desserts, so literally something for everyone!  We opted for traditional breakfast fare.  

I finished up the blog from yesterday and our guide from the agency arrived to take us on our way.  Roland’s job was to get us to the airport and through the check-in process and that was easy enough.  He was surprised that we were told not to drink water from the tap in our hotel.

We had plenty of time so we walked and walked and walked to get our missed steps in from yesterday.  We grabbed a coffee and found our flight was delayed!   

We saw a sign for “John Lennon” or so we thought. What could that mean?  Well, it turns it was a shop for everything LEMON!  The shop was called “Johnn Lemon”!  Too funny!

It turns out that cebu pacific airlines loads back of the plane passengers first! Since the last flight we were basically herded all at one time, we were curious as to how this would happen as everyone just sort of got into a long line. Obviously they knew the drill, but when we asked someone they said that they have a sequence of bigger numbers first and then it goes back to one so the back of the plane went first. We actually really like that! It loads faster as you don’t have to wait forever for someone to load the overhead bins and then sit so you can go past.  One gentlemen did tell me that perhaps senior citizens could check at the desk to see if they can go in earlier. Seriously? He thought we were senior citizens?!!!

It was a one hour flight that went pretty quick. Another interesting thing about this flight was if you wanted onboard service, you needed to have actually order it online AHEAD of time. We thought when he announced it that he meant for specialty drinks and specialty snacks. It must’ve meant everything though because he kept walking on by us and never stopping to see if we wanted anything, even water. We sort of waited, and they just kept walking by us. 

We arrived and our guides and driver were waiting!  We stopped at the Imelda Marcus museum which was a 21 room mansion they used to entertain guests.  A typhoon in 2013 flooded it and caused other damage so they are struggling to get it even remotely back to repaired.  They literally were sitting in the dark and only turned on the lights when we went into a room and then off again.  There are many things there that were either gifted to them from other countries or they acquired. Very interesting!! Intricate ivory carvings and Ming vases.  Bedrooms and baths for their entire family that were never even used.  No sign of her 3000+ shoes!

We went to MacArthur Landing National Memorial Park which commemorates the historic landing in Leyte Gulf at the start of the campaign to recapture and liberate the Philippines from Japanese on October 20, 1944.  Typhoon Yolanda of 2013 surged over this park area and they are still working on repairing it for the 75th anniversary to be held this upcoming October. We later went to a hotel that features many pictures from this time frame hanging in the hallways and general areas of three floors!  

This typhoon had a wave surge of over 21 feet and pushed 17 cargo ships onto land, one of which the front part was kept as a memorial to all the lives lost—over 7000. Most of this area was impacted.  As our guide said, you look out afterward and don’t even know where to begin.

They have had a lot of rebuilding, a LOT of which is still going on.  It is hard to describe it here.  People live differently all over the world—there are a lot of people here in a small space so lodgings tend to be small and made of materials easily accessible, like cardboard and corrugated metal, and concrete blocks.  Many have no glass windows, and all very close together.  Some have “businesses” on the front.  MANY with businesses; how do they all make a living with such small shops everywhere selling similar things? 

We also stopped to admire the San Juanico Bridge which  connects the provinces of Samar and Leyte and was one of the monumental projects under Former President Ferdinand Marcos’ administration. It is known to be the longest bridge in the Philippines and consists of an “L” for Leyte and an “S” for Samar.  Our guides said Samar has beautiful waterfalls and trees and is more natural.  It hasn’t been interrupted by tourists yet—it is a hidden gem! 

We saw so much that is is hard to remember it all.  Our main guide Cherry is great at explaining nearly everything we encountered and asked about! 

For dinner we decided to just walk around the block.  We stopped at a restaurant and had an appetizer of humba which is a spicy pork dish; it was great!  We then rounded the block and stopped at a restaurant next to our hotel and ordered another appetizer and dessert! The sizzling chicken was delish and spicy with regular chicken just cut up in small parts (including the bone) in a spicy sauce served on a sizzling cast iron plate.  The dessert was authentic Filipino and called sansrival.  Yum! 

Sleep time!